Complaint filed with FEC questions Johnson campaign's use of funds

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

10/19/2012 11:12 AM EDT

A Washington man who's worked in Republican politics has filed a notairized complaint with the FEC about Libertarian presidential hopeful Gary Johnson's campaign and the way his consultants have reported expenditures, raising questions about how huge chunks of the campaign's coffers went to a single entity.

The complaint, viewable here, was filed by Addison Smith, a Republican who was part of the George W. Bush reelection effort in 2004, according to his bio, and is currently a VP at Sphere Consulting.

In addition to the fact that the expenditures aren't labeled as primary or general election, there are major sums — in some cases as much as 120 percent, when debt is factored in — going to a single entity called Political Advisors, based in Utah. It's listed in the filings as for a wide variety of things like media buys.

But it's not clear from the filings exactly what the money was used for, as the FEC demands. For instance, things like campaign travel are lumped in as the same activities as media buys.

Smith declined to comment on why he did the filing when I reached him by phone. A source familiar with the effort said it arose from an exercise with intern training, and Johnson's filings were used as an example — and they were surprised by what they saw.

Smith doesn't work for a political campaign and is non-active this cycle, a source close to him said. His firm is represented by Patton Boggs, which employs Mitt Romney's veteran campaign counsel, Ben Ginsberg, who is an alum of many national efforts, including both the Bush election in 2000 and the reelect. Romney aides said the complaint has nothing to do with them.

Johnson has gotten public matching funds, in addition to what he has raised so far.

Asked to comment on the susbtance of the FEC complaint, Johnson campaign counsel Alicia Dearn responded in an email suggesting a political conspiracy.

"These types of FEC complaints are commonly filed by political opponents to distract and waste resources," she wrote. "Republicans know that they have millions of dollars to spend (just check their FEC filings!) on lawyers, and they quibble over how Johnson spends less than 1 percent of what they are taking in and spending. Republicans may continue to abuse our legal system like this, but it won’t stop Gov. Johnson’s campaign from finishing strong on Nov. 6."

She added, "The bottom line is that the campaign has complied with FEC reporting requirements and works with the FEC to continue to report appropriately. I’m confident that the FEC will not find anything wrong with the campaign’s reporting. If it does find some technical problem, the campaign will, of course, correct it."

Dearn did not respond to the questions in the complaint about why the payments were conducted that way — including why debt was suddenly reported in the latest filing.

Others have raised issues about exactly how Johnson has paid off debt from when he ran for president as a Republican in the primary.

Johnson's chances are not long on leaving a lasting mark on the process, unless he is able to show that he was the difference in the margin in specific close states. He has limited resources, and so how they are spent is of interest.